Faber-Castell Portable Watercolor Set Water Half Pans with Mixing Palette and Painting Accessories, 24 Count (Pack of 1), 24 Colors

Travel set with all the necessary colors, very pleased.

I love this set. It has almost everything you need to make beautiful paintings. The colors are beautiful and highly pigmented, and they blend and dilute really evenly. There are warm and cool primaries, magenta and black, which some sets don't have. There's no white so you have to buy that separately if you want it. (You might also want to buy white ink/gouache or a white gel pen to add accents or correct mistakes.) The colors are lightfast and acid-free according to the listing but that isn't mentioned on the packaging.Before trying them I thought the gold and white metallic paints were a gimmick but they're actually AMAZING. I blend them with the colors and can make beautiful, thick lettering that looks like it came from a giant glitter gel pen. It looks magical. I thought the shimmer would probably rub off, but if I rub it with my thumb only a tiny bit shows on my skin and there's no visible change on the paper.There is a color chart on the back of the cardboard box that the palette comes in, with each color labeled by a number and no name. The chart is laid out in a different format than the paints, and the cakes look very different than the swatches, so it takes a minute to figure out which swatch represents which paint pan. There's a leaflet inside that shows all the available colors and gives each color a number and name. I wish they'd included a piece of watercolor paper with a grid laid out just like the pans, with the names and numbers of the paints printed on it, that the user could fill in to accurately represent the colors, as other nice sets have. But it's not too hard to make your own if you have paper and waterproof ink (like a Pigma Micron pen), and you don't throw away any of the packaging before you realize you need it.I don't really like the included brush. Very little water seeps out as you use it so it goes dry. The plastic barrel is really firm, so you have to press it really hard to get anything to come out. If you press it hard enough to make anything happen, a ton of water comes out, washes the color off the brush and blops all over your work. Then you have to stop and add more color anyway (which can cause issues while lettering) so you might as well just use a traditional brush with water. The bristles are pretty stiff, and uneven at the tip, so they leave stray marks around the ends of each stroke. I've used other water brushes which worked better so I know these issues aren't just inherent to the tool. You can't store the assembled brush in the palette but I think that's intentional because it could destroy or waste a lot of your expensive paints if you left it in there full.So anyway this is a really nice set with an okay brush. I'd suggest ordering a traditional watercolor brush or a well-reviewed water brush pen with it if you don't already have a decent brush. I don't have any nice watercolor brushes so it was frustrating trying to take full advantage of the lovely paints.

My son is a digital artist and has always wanted to experiment with watercolors. He was very excited to see a set of watercolors made for artists.The kit includes 24 brilliant watercolor paints. These paints are highly pigmented, but at the same time, transparent.It comes packaged in an amazing little portable watercolor palette. It’s actually a small case that holds the paints. But the cover is unique because it doubles as a palette for mixing the paint and it can be removed to clean and then snap it back on!And my favorite feature is the watercolor brush that is included. This brush is actually a refillable water pen. It’s perfect when he wants to paint on the go. He already has the water he needs and he’s ready to paint any time!I can’t wait to see the creations that he will design!

I'm a hobbyist, not a a proper artist, so my opinion about the quality of these paints (they're great!) is that of a dabbler.I use watercolors to tint inked design sketches, for my infrequent attempts at actual painting (I painted in my youth, but never watercolors--always oils--so I've had no training in watercolors, so using them doesn't come easily to me), and for meditative/relaxation "coloring," in place of colored pencils. I find that watercolors are far more versatile, and so much easier on my hands They also lend themselves better to creativity, with easier blending options. Coloring in drawings is kind of idly creative and very relaxing (while trying to create my own paintings is rather stressful to me).These have lovely, saturated color, and even with no experience, I can blend new colors fairly easily. It is a little tough to tell which color is which in the darker colors, but the box has a little color key you can cut out and pop in the box (it fits nicely in the top section of the pallet). The lid forms a pallet you can remove and rinse easily. It's very sturdy and compact (though not quite as compact as the metal ones with the little removable pans). And the pallet stays up when open; it doesn't flop open and hang down if you're holding the case. My only knock against it is that you can't fit the water pen in the case when it's filled, only when it's disassembled, which makes the kit much less handy. You either have to empty out the brush (and what if you're somewhere without water, and you want to paint?), or carry and keep track of the brush separately, both annoying. For such an otherwise well-designed product, that seems like a big oversight.

What a compact wonder! If you want to water color on the go, this is a great option. The palette contains a brush that holds water inside so you can just squeeze to release the water instead of carrying a separate jar or dish. This helps remove the previous color from the brush or dilute a color. The set also comes with a good variety of colors as well as a small sponge to help wipe the brush of excess water.A neat and thoughtful function of the case is that it has a loop that swings out so you can safely hold the palette in your hand. Unfortunately I feel like the loop is facing the wrong direction and I wish it was perpendicular so I could hold the box open with the colors facing me.After trying to water color some flowers on a card, I found the pigments to stand out nicely and blend well. My only issue was that I had trouble controlling how watery my brush was and I had to wait for my first layer to dry more before I could add more detail.